The blast yesterday at the airport in Burgas, a popular
holiday spot on the Black Sea coast, occurred as the bus was
preparing to leave the terminal. Five Israeli tourists, the
Bulgarian bus driver and the attacker were killed, the Bulgarian
Foreign Ministry in Sofia said on its website today.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Israel
and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. The U.S.
has urged Israel to refrain from a threatened military attack on
Iran to give time for negotiations and economic sanctions
imposed by the U.S. and its European allies.

“All signs lead to Iran,” Netanyahu said in comments sent
in a text message. “Israel will respond forcefully to Iranian
terror.”

“While Iran is a credible suspect in the attack, the fact
that Netanyahu is already holding it responsible is undoubtedly
going to increase the tension between it and Israel, which is
something the international community cannot ignore,” Meir
Javedanfar, a lecturer on Iranian politics at the Herzliya
Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, said in a telephone
interview.

Campaign of Attacks

Israeli analysts have said that a campaign of attacks may
be a response to the killings of several Iranian nuclear
scientists in recent years that Iran’s leaders have blamed on
Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the attack was
carried out “by operatives of Hezbollah, who are sponsored by
Iran.”

Netanyahu said that yesterday’s attack came on the 18th
anniversary of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in
Buenos Aires, which Argentinian officials have accused Iran and
Lebanon’s Hezbollah of carrying out.

Israel’s secret services warned their Bulgarian
counterparts of a possible terrorist attack on Israeli tourists
several weeks ago, Bulgaria on Air television reported, citing
unidentified intelligence officials. Netanyahu said Iran had
planned similar attacks earlier this year in India, Thailand,
Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and elsewhere.

Community Center

The explosion was caused by a suicide bomber, Bulgaria’s
Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said in a television
broadcast from Burgas today. Surveillance cameras at the airport
showed an unidentified man joining the tourists as they were
coming out of the arrivals terminal, he said. A fake driver’s
license from the state of Michigan in the U.S. was found among
his remains, he said.

Bulgarian and Israeli secret service experts in partnership
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Central
Intelligence Service are working together to establish his
identity through DNA tests, Tsvetanov said.

Israel will file a complaint with the United Nations
Security Council and will ask for sanctions on Iran, including a
ban on travel abroad by holders of Iranian passports and a ban
on Iranian airlines seeking to land at foreign airports, Deputy
Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said.

‘All Means’

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel will use
“all means” to find those behind the attack.

The bus on which the explosion took place was carrying 40
tourists, Bulgarian state radio reported. The blast, which also
damaged nearby vehicles, happened about half an hour after a
flight arrived from Tel Aviv, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry
said.

Bulgaria stepped up security measures at all hotels on the
Black Sea with Israeli tourists, synagogues and the Israeli
Embassy in Sofia, as well as in airports, bus and railway
stations, the Interior Ministry said.

About 140,000 Israeli tourists visited Bulgaria last year,
accounting for 10 percent of all tourists, according to Blagoi
Ragin, head of the Hoteliers Association in Bulgaria.